Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I heard recently of somone feeding tuna to monitors. It got me thinking. Do species catch fish in the wild and eat them. I would imagine that monitors that live near water (waters, mangrove, etc)would at least eat dead fish.

So my question is: Has anyone ever fed tuna in springwater or sardines to their monitors? If so did you notice any difference in fecal matter (being messy or smelly) with them.

OR

Is this a totally bad idea?

I know whole prey items are the best and it is best to use rodents as a staple.
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Ed

There are water dragons, chameleons, frilled dragons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

hahaha

Ok about them eating fish in the wild, uh yep they sure do. Nile monitors have been known to wade into a shallow pond then use their tails to catch fish. They sort of use it like a net by bending it towards their body. Then they simply drag themselves to shore pulling the fish with them. The fish are stuck between the tail and the niles body. They then reach back and gulp them up.

Others also enjoy fish, even some that you would think have never had it on the menu. They are simply opertunistic eating on just about anything and everything.

Now onto the fish giving smelly or runny stools. Well if you find something that comes back out and smells good let me know.
It does not contain any roughage so yes it will lead to runny stools. Rodents hair is roughage and is the reason the stool is not runny. With chicks the feathers are roughage but you'll see the stool is a bit more runny with it then rodents.

Lastly Yes i have fed many types of fish to my monitors. I have fed them tuna but not from a can, it came off the hook. If I get store bought fish it is smelt.

hope that sums it up for you

Not cleaned pieces of meat. Stick with whole fish, guts and all. Whole animal foods again, how about that.